5 things bacon can teach you about content marketing

There are few things better than bacon, but your content can give it a run for its money if you follow these delicious tips.

By Jason MillerAug. 30, 2012

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Society’s widespread fascination with bacon is for a good reason. Bacon makes everything better.

For example, Google just released a Chrome extension that can replace all those annoying baby photos in your Facebook newsfeed with pictures of bacon.

Necessary? No. Useful and entertaining? Absolutely.

This cultural phenomenon didn’t take shape overnight, and there are hidden secrets to bacon’s success that we can apply to a content marketing strategy.

What’s the appeal of bacon, why do so many people love it, and what can we learn about its mystical allure?

Here are five things bacon can teach us about content marketing:

1. Bacon is nostalgic.Bacon can evoke emotions of a fuzzy, golden heyday of our past. The aroma might bring back memories of newspapers crinkling and bacon frying on the stove.

Your content can take your audience on a trip down memory lane, too. Remind them of a piece of pop culture and relate it to something current. A marriage of interesting and useful content is a winning combination. Nostalgia is a fantastic way to connect with your audience on an emotional level.

Your content should follow a similar philosophy. Creating remarkable content your audience finds inspiring will empower them to repurpose your original idea and a link back to the source.

3. Bacon makes everything better. Have a problem with a boring, or less-than-flattering marketing message? Just as bacon can make even a water chestnut taste delicious, a good piece of content can makeover any lackluster campaign.

Push the boundaries of your content, try new things, and see how far you can push your core message outside of your initial reach.

4. Bacon doesn’t take itself too seriously.It’s great to have serious content with serious messaging, but it’s also OK to entertain and have fun with your content. Bacon pokes fun at itself on a daily basis. Just look at Mr. Baconpants and the tremendous amount of engagement and traffic it creates. It’s interesting, entertaining, and takes criticism without being defensive.

5. Bacon is diverse.Did you know bacon has 18 ingredients? Six of these are types of “umami,” which is Japanese for the fifth flavor (after sweet, salty, sour and bitter.) You can loosely translate “umami” as “deliciousness.” It’s highly addictive.

Your content can follow a similar formula if it draws upon a diverse number of resources. Chances are your audience is interested in a range of topics, so go ahead and push the boundaries of what you think is safe. It’s all relevant if, in the end, you can tie it back to your core message and keywords.

Like a good content marketing strategy, bacon is always top-of-mind. It shows up nearly everywhere it should be, whether or not someone searched for it. This should be the goal of your content marketing efforts.

Take a cue from bacon when you think about your next piece of content. Don’t be afraid to push the boundaries beyond what’s traditional. You will soon discover new ways to surprise, delight and inspire your audience. Isn’t that the key to killer content in the first place?